About four million Afghan’s live in refugee camps outside the county; another two million internally displaced people eke out an existence on the streets of Kabul and other towns.

Everyone… children, grandparents, teens, parents, the numbers fluctuate as some have able to return home when the fighting moves elsewhere. The growing numbers reaching refugee camps are a sign of the deepening of the conflict between NATO and American forces and the Taliban in the south. Read More »

Afghanistan Refugee Camp

Afghanistan Refugee Camp

“The Taliban are getting stronger,” said Muhammad Younus, a farm who abandoned his village after his father, brother and uncle were killed in an air strike two years ago.

Said they had moved to Islamabad because of growing insecurity across the south.

“We left our houses because we had no power to resist the Taliban or the government,” said Mr. Muhammad, the representative who brought families to Islamabad.

Government’s Plan

As part of the government’s plan, camp residents have the option of returning to their homeland(taking advantage of UNHCR assistance) or relocating to other camps inside the Pakistan.

The camp is one of over 100 such sites set up for Afghan refugees who poured in to Pakistan following the 1979 Soviet invasion of their country. Many of Jalozai’s residents have lived in camp, one of the oldest in Pakistan, for decades.

The Pakistani authorities say most Afghans still in the country are “economic refugees” and that some camps had become hiding places for militants. Over the past five years the government has been calling for the closure of large camps for Afghanre fugees, calling them a haven for ”terrorists” and criminal activities. In recent weeks, over 3,000 camp residents have voluntarily returned to their homeland, according to UNHCR.